President Donald Trump said Thursday that federal officials are developing guidelines to rate counties by risk of virus spread, as he aims to begin to ease nationwide guidelines meant to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
Vice-President Pence said that the President had sent letters to all the state Governors expressing his desire to open up the country. And, the President realizes that each state is different and any decisions will be made responsibly and from input of all data available.
The President also on a conference call with governors Thursday, stressed the need to reopen businesses and to recognize regional differences in the virus’ impact.
Last week Trump unveiled a 15-day program advising against large gatherings and calling for many Americans to remain at home. The guidelines, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are voluntary, but many state and local leaders have issued mandatory restrictions in line with, or even tighter than, those issued by the CDC.
The idea of analyzing county by county to make a decision is probably a very good decision, as each state and county is different and these guidelines will help determine the time line of reducing or eliminating restrictions. States and municipalities would still retain authority to make these decisions.
“Every day that we stay out it gets harder to bring it back very quickly,” Trump said during a Thursday press conference.
“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” he said Tuesday during a Fox News virtual town hall. Easter is just over two weeks away and is on Apr. 12.
“Wouldn’t it be great to have all of the churches full?” Trump said in a subsequent interview. “You’ll have packed churches all over our country.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump developed the Easter date as a goal to give people “hope.”
“I think, that opening by Easter, the president was giving people a lot of hope and basically telling us it won’t last forever, and we’ll see what happens over time,” she told reporters Thursday.
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